Youth keelboat schedule announced

Following on from the launch by Volvo and the RYA at the London Boat Show of the new Volvo RYA Keelboat Sailing Programme 2003, further details of how to get involved in the scheme are now available.

The programme will provide training, coaching and grants to a small but select number of young sailors who in turn will feed into future British keelboat projects such as the Volvo Ocean Race, Europrix, Admirals' and Commodores' Cups, and the Americas' Cup. The scheme will also support young sailors wishing to get into single-handed sailing.

The Volvo RYA Keelboat Team will initially consist of a squad of twenty, aged between 16-24 years old. Once in the team, the sailors will benefit from general and specific keelboat training including instrumentation, meteorology and sail tuning. RYA coaching staff will attend training weekends and relevant specialist knowledge will be brought in.

Members of Team Volvo for Life, an elite and inspirational team of British sailors, including Olympic sailor Ben Ainslie and Volvo Ocean Race skipper Neal McDonald, will act as mentors to the Volvo RYA Keelboat Sailing Programme and will also provide knowledge, training and inspiration to the squad. Team Volvo for Life will also support Volvo's grass roots sailing sponsorships - the Volvo RYA Champion Club and Volvo Musto Optimist Sailing programmes.

The Volvo RYA Crewsearch Scheme will help match Volvo RYA Keelboat Team-members with keelboat owners who run viable campaigns. In time it is hoped keelboat owners will in turn select crewmembers for their campaigns from the Volvo RYA Keelboat Team.

If you would like to be considered for the Volvo RYA Keelboat Team, all you need to do is send in your CV along with a short critique on your future sailing aspirations to Jill Royse, Keelboat Administrator, jill.royse@rya.org.uk, t. 023 8062 7437. You will then be asked to attend one of the designated selection weekends that are part of the Volvo RYA Keelboat Programme. Sailors competing in the National and Youth Match Racing Circuit can also be put forward to attend the selections weekend. Recommendations to the RYA by other organisations, talent scouts and RYA High Performance Managers, are also acceptable.

Volvo RYA Keelboat Team selectors will be on hand at all of the selection weekends.
Full dates and further details are available on the RYA website: www.rya.org.uk/Racing/Keelboats/